Peter Reynolds and the MPs who Weren’t

The response to my earlier blogposts on Peter Reynolds has been spectacular, really. Over 400 unique people have read the homophobia article. The response has been mainly positive, but there has been a persistent, and frankly, deluded trail of commenters who keep telling me and others that pointing out that Peter Reynolds is homophobic is a “distraction”, and “isn’t relevant”, that we need to “stay focussed” on the campaign and that Peter is “a damn good campaigner”.

I am and remain baffled that people who know Peter Reynolds have said, “Well, I’ve met him and he’s definitely not homophobic or racist”, as if you have to actively be battering LGBT people with 2x4s before you get your anti-gay card. We have Peter Reynolds’ writings, and they are awful. We have his confirmation on the 2nd January that he stood by his previous comments 100%. We have his total lack of an apology on the Clear website, in which he said,

“I am extremely sorry if any of the articles on my personal website or any comments I have made at any time have offended anyone. The articles in question were written at least two years ago and were intended to be provocative and controversial. Had I known that one day I would be elected a leader of a political party I would have chosen my words much more carefully.”

Not, “I made a mistake publishing words that are discriminatory towards minorities, and I’m sorry”, not “I thought those things a long time ago but I’m over that now, yay gays”, but

“Well, I knew that everything I wrote was homophobic and racist, but I published them anyway because I thought it would be “controversial”, and had no idea that one day I would become the political leader of a party and I would feel the need to reaffirm to the world on the 2nd January, 2 years after the original post and while leader, that homosexuality is a perversion, and I’m not racist, despite my racist writings, because I have a black friend. Who’s really, really black. Jet black, actually. Sorry if you just didn’t get that.”

Nice apology.

I can’t convince anyone who doesn’t believe that saying that gay people are infecting the fashion industry is a problem, but I can demonstrate the political sandstorm that awaits people who express such sentiments. Yesterday I received some very interesting news and screenshots to back them up – someone went through Peter Reynolds’ friends’ list on Facebook this week and contacted every single MP on his list, pointing out the comments on his blog. The result?

12131415 17 Members of Parliament have deleted Peter Reynolds from Facebook. These are:

Now, I can almost hear the complaint already that someone made trouble for Peter Reynolds by contacting all the politicians on his list , all the while missing the point – MPs are grown-ups, and actual politicians, and when they are made aware of people stating homophobic and racist reviews, they distance themselves as far and as fast as possible (except Tom Brake, apparently).

Saying that Peter Reynolds isn’t a homophobe because you have personally never seen him tell a gay person to their face that they are perverts, and claiming that no-one cares about what people post on their personal blog, is to have an exceptionally low opinion of the standing of the cannabis campaign and a belief that no-one is listening. But they are, and what they are hearing is that large number of cannabis campaigners are willing to set aside the basic human rights of a greater percentage of the population than themselves in the belief that Peter Reynolds can deliver them a bit of political influence. And I think you should question what impression YOU are giving of cannabis law reform, as well as Peter Reynolds.

Maybe Peter Reynolds is influencing politics, but certainly not in the way we’d all like.

UPDATE: Michael Meacher, Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton has also deleted Peter Reynolds.

THis is nothing but HATEFULL PROPAGANDER! Nobody givs a rats arse about Petres personal views cos he wants to legalise the weed! Those MPs are nothing but TROLLS AND TRUBBLEMAKERS! PEtre is too good for them anyways.

Petre can say racist stuff cos he has a black friend which proves hes not racist.

nice article sarah.I just wanna have access to CLEAR again and not be banned.I think PR is clinging on with every part of him…and causing damage as he goes! Hopefully he just sees sense and steps down! LOL

I really don’t like to get involved in politics, however,
Peter Reynolds deleted my contribution to the debate about his competence to run CLEAR and banned me from posting any more comments. I’m sorry he felt that way and my feelings are terribly hurt, anyway here’s what I posted:

I tried to plough through the rest of the articles and quite frankly thought they were the rantings of a right wing extremist. Whatever, this is damaging to all of the good work that has already been acheived, and anyway I quite like gay fashion designers, don’t feel the need to look at beautiful women in beautiful clothes, have a great deal of respect for our muslim brothers and I even like black people”

I have no idea why Sarah is being attacked for simply pointing out what the guy openly admits to writing. This is not a one off remark, but a series of damaging articles that will alienate minority groups from becoming involved in what is a righteous cause.

This was written a week ago.
How happy am I that my efforts in this regard, have been autonomous since eventually giving up i.v. heroin use in 1984? Appearing on Kilroy, BBC News, Sky News, BBC Wales, and a letter published in the Independent. Often on Radio5 Live. Seeing the frantic outrage, and feeling it, caused by recent events leaves me thinking:”Who would want to lead these people, and why?” We are all entitled to our opinions, as much as we are responsible for the consequences of expressing them. If only a fraction of the efforts undertaken to usurp Peter were directed positively. we would not now have tumble weeds drifting through our field of view. Those who would be judge, jury and executioner scare me, and not just for the future of the plant we allegedly all love.
There appears to be more effort going in to organizing the hanging, than finding a resolution. I sense a return to autonomy, I would not relish either side covering my back.

Good point, but Peter is causing all this, he should have done the right thing, stood by his writings and fell on his sword for the benefit of the political battle ahead. Comme on mate, how can he argue for us, they will tear him up, you cant express those kinda views and expect to get mainstream support.

“Well, I’ve met him and he’s definitely not homophobic or racist” seems a fair enough comment to make. Some people don’t get offended easily. Some people get offended very easily. Surely this stuff is relative?

Peter not only said he was sorry if he offended anyone, he said he was “extremely sorry”

If you’re still upset maybe you’re a bit sensitive?

As I said earlier some people are more easily offended than others. If for instance Derek says to Jayell “Watching you guys is like watching a pack of dogs all barking and snarling together.” Some people might decide that Derek was talking about them specifically and calling them a dog.

They could draw all sorts of offensive inferrences from the comment from that point on if they wanted to…
Derek is calling me a dog – He is saying I am ugly
Derek is calling me a dog – He is saying my breath stinks
Derek is calling me a dog – He is saying I have fleas
and on and on.

Of course Derek was actually talking about bullying, which ironic given that people’s reactionary responses to harmless comments is quite often a result of bullying. He was making an analogy about a pack of dogs being similar to a pack of bullies.

Peter’s blog comments however were intended to be controversial and offensive. How then might such intentionally offensive comments affect a person who is perhaps a little sensitive and reactionary? It would probably cause them to get very heated and morally outraged and start doing everything in their power to show people what an offensive monster the man was.

Well, as I said before how offensive something is is relative. Everybody is different. Their are plenty of campaigns to end racism and homophobia and lots of people quick to get outraged on behalf of gays and lesbians or muslims and blacks but rather less support for people with big noses who get called “Bignose” or ginger people who get discriminated against or people who don’t have a learning problem like dyslexia or autism but who are nevertheless a bit dense and get teased for it.

Ah! I see I’m priviliged and you’re marginalised. I’m derailing because I’m secretly biggoted! It’s all so clear at last!

It’s easy to make a big list of every possible argument someone could make against somebody who’s having a big whiny tantrum and say it’s all derailing tactics. The fact is that some people ARE oversensitive or perhaps you don’t believe there even is such a thing? Where do you draw the line? If it’s alright to completely set out to defame and besmirch somebody’s character if you’re offended by them and do your level best to ruin their career why not go the whole hog and shoot them? After all he offended you and nobody could claim you were being hostile or overemotional or oversensitive because if they did they would just be derailing and anyway they’re probably priviliged.
How many of the worlds dictators and tyrants are I wonder just bitter little people who were somewhat reactionary and a bit oversensitive and felt that because they’d been marginalised they would take whatever petty revenge on the world that they could?

Peter said he was ‘extremely sorry’ and then continued to behave in exactly the same way. How ‘sorry’ do you think he really is?

I met him briefly some months ago. He’s obviously an extremely intelligent and articulate man. There are several clips on YouTube and no evidence of anything else. On the evidence available, he would appear to be a first class (self) publicist and copy writer.

However, even Hitler was nice to his dog. He’s a politician and proven liar with a conviction for dishonesty. He also spent three months on remand for beating up his girlfriend before the charges were apparently dropped. Given the homophobic and sexist nature of his rant about Sarah, I think it’s reasonable for him to say more about that.